Make Me Understand
by Meriwether
Summary: [JordanWoody] “Are you alone?” Please God, let her be alone… “Of course. Well, that’s if you don’t count the halfdressed bachelor tied to my bed…”


**Disclaimer: **_I own absolutely nothing. As much as I'd like to take credit for these amazing characters and television show that I based this fan fiction off of, I cannot. I am merely a fan trying to get through those long cold nights._

* * *

Hearing a familiar knock, Woody quickly downed the rest of his juice and opened his apartment door, to find Jordan ushering herself inside.

"Hey Woody." She greeted him, almost a little too cheerfully.

"You're awfully…" he faltered slightly, thinking of an appropriate word "_Bouncy_ this morning."

"Bouncy?" She laughed lightly to herself. "Well, what can I say? Nothing gets your body going like a good jog in the morning sun."

She continued to look up at him, her smile unwavering. She knew there was a battle going on inside of him. She could see the irritation in his eyes. Trying to understand her odd behavior, but at the same time not wanting to care.

Shrugging off all uncertainty, "Alright" he irritably ushered her out of his apartment, "Let's get this over with."

* * *

The night before, Jordan had managed to convince Woody to go running with her the next morning. He was skeptical at first, but she had told him she wanted him there for purely selfish reasons.

Before they made it to the end of the first mile, Jordan looked behind her, to see Woody leaning over, slightly out of breath.

He threw her a menacing glare, "Remind me how you dragged me into this?"

She slowly shook her head and walked back towards him. "Oh, so that's how its gonna be?" She says, playfully hitting his shoulder, "Come on Wood, you could use the work out."

"Excuse me?" Woody's eyes widened, feigning hurt, "I'm in the best shape of my life, thank you very much." He said trying desperately to hide the smile that was aching to be released.

Casually tilting her head, she studied his body thoughtfully, "I think I've seen better."

He opened his mouth to reply but found himself somewhat taken aback by her response; unable to say anything he quickly shut his mouth. He watched her smile sweetly at him and continues to jog up the path.

* * *

After much internal debate, Woody admitted to himself he was actually enjoying being outside and jogging with Jordan. Roughly half a quarter mile from his apartment, he slowed at the end of the block.

"Aw, you wimping out on me Wood?" She asked, putting on her most cocky voice.

Shaking his head, he allowed himself a full smile, "How about we race back to my place."

Silently wondering if he was serious, "Yeah? What do I get when I win?" she asked jokingly.

"You mean _if_ you win?" He said with his grin broadening.

She forced herself to remain confident and locked her eyes on him, though silently cursed Woody for having such a dopey smile.

Taking a chance, "I'll buy you dinner tonight." He states somewhat hopefully, and can't stop the grin from taking over his face.

"Oh…" She stiffens slightly and looks off to side, but eventually meets his gaze "Actually, tonight isn't really good for me."

"Oh, well are you working late? Because I could probably convince Dr. Macy to let you off…"

"No, no." She quickly shook her head, "I have a date." She smiles slightly at him with a seeming lack of concern.

"A date?" He forces the words from his throat and his goofy grin quickly fades.

"Yeah, he's a friend of Lilly's actually. She came by the Pogue with him and we just kind of hit it off, you know? He seems like a good guy." She quickly chided herself after noticing the look in his eyes, "Should I not be telling you this? I mean…"

He quickly raised his hands in defeat, "Hey, Jordan." He strained a smile, but the bitterness in his voice was apparent. "If you want to move on, great, go for it. Because believe me, so am I."

Slightly annoyed with his tone, "Lets just set the record straight here, okay? First of all, you have moved on, more then a few times. With people that I even know. Second of all, you made it very clear you think we're better off as friends. I am just trying to respect that."

"Jordan!" His voice sounded more battered then he had intended, but her naivety was killing him. "I only said that because I knew you wouldn't be able to say what I wanted to hear. It just never occurred to me you'd meet some other guy and say it to him.

Before she could get another word in, her cell phone ringing interrupted her.

"It's Macy."

Offering no more of an explanation, she quickly took off back towards his apartment. He finally caught up with her, only to see her drive off with out so much as a good bye.

* * *

"What happened to your hot date tonight?" His eyes scan the room briefly, with a sad smile, "Or have you resorted to straight out lies now in order to avoid me." 

Slightly startled, Jordan looked up from her desk, seeing Woody casually leaning against her door.

"Ah, actually, I cancelled. Cold feet I guess." She shot him a quick glance before focusing her gaze back on her desk.

"At least I'm not the only one you're running from." He replies, not bothering to hide the distain in his voice.

Jordan, growing more annoyed, watches him slowly pace around her office, "Woody, can we just not do this?"

He quickly spins to face her, "Not do what Jordan?" He questions her, his voice becoming so wounded he can see her visibly flinch.

"This!" She quickly stands and motions to the space between them. "Us, fighting."

Looking thoughtfully at the ground, he tries to calm himself. "What do you want from me, Jordan? I can't pretend like nothing has happened."

"I'm not asking you to." She replies gently, the pain in her voice is clear. "But you're obviously resenting me for how things turned out."

"Jordan, how can I not?" He looks back at her dumbfounded. "The only thought that kept me sane through all of this was that you just weren't ready yet. That eventually, you'd be willing to take that next step. It's why I was able to hold onto that tiny shred hope of us ever being together. But now I find out that you can in fact date, as long as it's not with me."

"You know, Woody, for someone who is so smart, you can be pretty slow sometimes." She laughs bitterly, and pushes her chair underneath her desk. "I was ready to take that next step. With you. And you know what happened when I tried to tell you this? You came in here telling me how 'you're done' and 'you give up'. Not letting me get a single word in. So don't even try to lay all of this on me."

She quickly grabbed her jacket and left without another word.

* * *

Jordan grudgingly pulled herself out of bed and dragged herself to her apartment door. Seeing that it was Woody, she momentarily considered crawling back into bed and forgetting everything that had happened between them today. Deciding to just get it over with, she hesitantly pulled open her door, revealing an obviously distressed Woody.

"It's almost 2am, Wood."

"Yeah, sorry. Listen Jordan." He stops himself mid-sentence and awkwardly looks around her apartment, "Are you alone?"

_Please God, let her be alone…_

"Of course. Well, that's if you don't count the half-dressed bachelor tied to my bed…"

Rolling her eyes at his obvious lack of amusement, "That noise is coming from the TV." She nods towards her bedroom and shuts door.

Woody slowly nods, shifting uncomfortably, trying to decide where to put his hands. He settles for folding his arms across his chest.

"So…" She wearily studies his appearance, "I'm assuming you're not here for the spectacular view of the city?"

Woody looks resolutely at the ground, "I messed up. I know that." He slowly meets her gaze and sees the question in her eyes, but shakily waves a hand to silence her thoughts. "Let me finish."

Unable to keep eye contact, he looks away, "Jordan, after you turned down the ring, I could practically feel my heart breaking. It was hard to face you after that, god, it was hard to face anyone. So I knew I needed to get that final confrontation over with as quickly and painlessly as possible, for both our sakes."

Determined, he looked up only to find an almost untraceable glimmer of tears in her eyes. Cursing himself for making her sad, he stepped closer to her, only to have her eyes lower to the ground. "Jordan" he says gently and rests his hands on forearms, "I'm not trying to make you feel guilty."

Laughing slightly, "Well you're doing a pretty good job of it." She quickly wipes her eyes and stares down at this thumbs that are tracing small soothing circles on her arms.

"I'm just trying to make you understand." He said, his voice rough.

"I do understanding, Woody." She replied, willing herself not to cry.

"You just, you should know…" he allows himself a deep breath before continuing, "That there's nothing I regret more then leaving your office that night without hearing what you had to say. It's a mistake I'll probably have to live with for the rest of my life. I just hope that one day you can forgive me; I don't want my stupidity to ruin whatever it is we have left.

Jordan looked back up at him intently, "There's nothing to forgive, Woody. Your stupidity is always going to be part of our relationship." She said, allowing herself a small smile

_Our relationship… _

His eyes widened and he could feel all the air leave his lungs.

"Our relationship…" He repeated it aloud, already feeling dumb and looked questionably into her eyes.

"Woody, I have a confession." She looked desperately into his eyes, pleading with him to let her talk. She received a simple but confused nod and decided to continue.

"I had… _ulterior motives," _she said, purposefully stressing the words he had used previously. "…when I asked you to come running with me."

He could hardly move; unsure of weather his legs were even working. Deciding it best not to find out, all he could do was continue to nod slowly.

"Woody, I wasn't worried about my safety."

"I kind of figured that, Jo." He chuckled softly, but still slightly worried what her mysterious reason is.

He felt Jordan's body slowly inch closer to his own and unconsciously gripped her arms tighter, his heart throbbing to pull her even closer.

"I miss you" She whispered, barely even audible.

Comprehension suddenly washed over his body and he had to struggle to keep himself standing. If his legs hadn't stopped working before, they sure as hell did now.

Ignoring all the warning bells raging inside of himself, he slowly dipped his head and closed his eyes before gently pressing his lips against hers. Softly guiding his tongue over her bottom lip, he ran his hands down her arms and circled them around her waist. His body screamed heat as her lips slowly parted granting him full access to her mouth. He gently pushed his tongue against hers as he felt her hands slide up his chest and wrap around his neck. He sensed her trying to pull him closer and quickly obeyed. His tongue longingly played against hers, before he grudgingly slowed the movement of his lips, fighting to keep his body under control. He pulled away slightly but gently rest his lips against hers.

Jordan suddenly grew self-cautious as she felt Woody's smile pressed against her lips. She stepped back with a hesitant smile of her own. Suddenly feeling cold, with the loss of her body pressed against his, he opened his eyes to find her looking intently at him.

Jordan's uneasiness was apparent, "Woody…" she started but silently berated herself after hearing how shaky her voice sounded.

"Hmm?" His smile did not falter, could not falter. Woody knew God himself could not change that.

"Why are you smiling at me like that?" She found herself laughing quietly, "It's kinda weird." All she could do was watch as his grin became even more adorable.

"I finally got me some Jordan."

**THE END**

* * *

**Authors Note:** As I've said in other stories I've written, I'm used to writing strictly dialogue. I'm still not really comfortable with this whole descriptive/visual side of writing. Reviews are always nice, I also like advice. Oh and sorry if Jordan and Woody seemed out of character. I've only seen the last 9 episodes or so that aired (including the re-runs).


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